Cassie Tully assesses the pedigree of QIPCO 2000 Guineas winner Kameko

If I had the ability to go back in time, one of the first places to visit would be the Keeneland Sales grounds in November 2018, with $1,500 in my hand, to buy the dam of this year’s QIPCO 2000 Guineas winner.

Sweeter Still was bred by Anne Marie O’Brien and ran once for her husband Aidan before transferring to America for a Group Three win at Hollywood Park over a mile. She also placed in two Group Two contests before being sold for $750,000, in foal to Galileo.

Two years later, with this Classic winner Kameko in utero, she returned to the sales ring again and fetched $35,000. Setting a pattern, after another two years in 2018, when Sweeter Still had four foals of racing age and all were unraced, she was discarded for the small sum.

Two months prior to that significant transaction, David Redvers, racing manager for Qatar Racing, unearthed Kameko, lot number 475 of 4,538 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

Kameko’s 10/1 price for the first British Classic of the year at the weekend reflected both the fact that there was an unbeaten champion two-year-old with the highest rating in 25 years dominating the build-up, as well as the Ballydoyle factor, which is of course impossible to ignore in every top flight contest.

But as well as that, there was at the very least a light-grey shadow of doubt surrounding Kameko, a sniff of disregard even, around his upset win in the Vertem Futurity Trophy last year.

There was a widely-held view that the all-weather surface at Newcastle suited the American-bred horse much more than the three promising sons of Galileo’s from the Ballydoyle battalion who finished behind him. It was argued that perhaps the result may have been very different had the race been staged at its intended venue of Doncaster.

Parallels can be drawn between the underestimation of both mother and son Sweeter Still and Kameko, and the colt's own sire. He s one of the most underrated stallions now on the planet.

Kameko is by Kitten’s Joy, a Sadler’s Wells grandson who was Champion Turf Male in the USA in 2004 and has so far been Champion Turf Sire in the States six times.

Although turf racing has drastically progressed and expanded in North America in recent years, and Kitten’s Joy has produced 47 Group winners to date including four Champions and 13 millionaires, the majority within the bloodstock world over there still only have tunnel vision for the hottest dirt horses. The rest literally are dirt.

Kitten’s Joy is in the unfortunate limbo of being an appealing branch of Sadler’s Wells to us here in Europe yet viewed as a European Turf horse in America where he stands.

Such was the frustration of owner Ken Ramsey, who single-handedly got the stallion off the mark by purchasing mare after mare to visit and support him. Subsequently 36 of his first 38 stakes winners were homebreds.

When Kitten’s Joy still wasn’t attracting the best mares from around America and his yearlings weren’t making any headlines at the sales three years ago, Ramsey realised that his horse would be far more appreciated in Europe.

Unfortunately for us, this never came to fruition due to his family not wanting to part with their pride and joy. So instead, Kitten’s Joy made the shorter journey to Hill N Dale Farm where he now stands for $75,000.

America’s indifference for the stallion soon become Sheikh Fahad and his Qatar Racing operation’s gain. David Redvers, notably underbidder on Kitten’s Joy’s first top level European winner Hawkbill, returned with determination and sourced not only the now much-missed four-time Group One winner Roaring Lion, but Kameko, who is stepping up to the plate to try and fill that void left by his brilliant predecessor..

Saturday proved that Kameko’s Vertem Futurity win was no fluke, and in taking down both the most exciting three-year-old prospect for this year and the Ballydoyle army, he was naturally launched into favouritism for the Investec Derby.

An attempt at which, according to Andrew Balding, Redvers might take some convincing. He questioned "What breeders might think if you won a Derby”.

Sparking outrage, yet accurately defining the connotations within the bloodstock world today, you only need to recall the prophetic words of the genius Federico Tesio: "The thoroughbred exists because its selection has depended, not on experts, technicians, or zoologists, but on a piece of wood: the winning post of the Epsom Derby."

Still validating that statement today, three of Europe’s top stallions all ran in the Derby.

Galileo’s three Group One wins which included the Epsom Classic, were all run over a mile-and-a-half. Dubawi won the Guineas and was placed third in the Derby. Sea The Stars won both.

Neither Galileo or Dubawi have been hindered in producing Group One winners that range from sprinting to staying distances, as well as producing Europe’s highest priced yearlings every year. Sales fashion comes and goes, but true class always remains at the top.

Although American-bred, his dam gained her Black Type in the States, Kameko’s pedigree is predominantly European.

El Prado, Sadler’s Wells, Lady Capulet, Lear Fan, Roberto, Rock of Gibraltar, Danehill, Belmez, El Gran Senor and Caerleon are all European Group One winners in his immediate pedigree. While his dam is also a half-sister to Kingsbarns, winner of the same juvenile Group One as Kameko, previously known as the Racing Post Trophy.

Nearly all of Kameko’s female family did not win beyond nine furlongs. Nor did Kitten’s Joy’s female family for that matter.

Dual Group One winner African Story and Rip Van Winkle, who feature under Kameko’s fourth dam, are the only two who both stretched out to ten furlongs for Group One wins.

Kitten’s Joy himself, however, did win a Group One over both a mile-and-a-half and ten furlongs, as well as producing Hawkbill who won the Dubai Sheema Classic over 12 furlongs and Big Blue Kitten, who won two Group Ones over the Derby distance.

It is ever-tempting to compare Kameko to Roaring Lion who excelled over ten furlongs and although he finished third in the Derby, he blatantly did not stay the trip.

While Kameko's pedigree page screams mile to ten furlongs, we have seen that sons of Galileo can still win the Derby out of a pure sprinting family, and without attempting to draw parallels between the two very different sires, what we have seen of Kitten’s Joy so far, everything seems possible.

The French Derby run over ten furlongs could be more to the Guineas winner's liking, but while there is zero chance of his placing or non-placing in the Investec Derby affecting his ability to produce quality offspring, there is always a chance that this horse may go and win it.

It's a gamble worth taking.

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